Fresh anti-Assad rallies in Syria

1 July 2011 Last updated at 17:53 GMT Pro-government rallies were also held after Friday prayers Hundreds of thousands of people have staged anti-government protests across Syria, despite an ongoing military crackdown, reports say.

Rights groups say at least five people were shot dead by government troops in the central city of Homs.

Protests were reported in the capital, Damascus, in eastern and western cities and in towns along the border regions.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned time is running out for Syria's government to usher in reforms.

Speaking during a visit to Lithuania, she said President Bashar Assad would face more organised resistance to his rule unless the country saw "a genuine transition to democracy".

Human rights groups estimate that about 1,700 people have been killed in three months of anti-government protests.

Mr Assad has promised a dialogue on introducing political reforms but the protesters are calling for him to stand down.

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Hundreds of thousands are chanting 'Leave, leave, the people want the fall of the regime.' All of Hama is celebrating”

End Quote Hama resident 'God, Syria, Bashar' Hundreds of thousands of people were reported to have taken to the streets across Syria after prayers on Friday, following calls on social networks for fresh demonstrations.

Some opposition activists said as many as 3m people joined the demonstrations nationwide, but this figure cannot be independently verified.

In Homs, five people were reportedly shot dead and several injured as government troops fired on protesters - armoured vehicles were deployed in the Baba Amr district of the city, activists said.

Abdel-Karim Rihawi, president of the Syrian League for Human Rights, told AFP news agency tens of thousands of people had left mosques in Deir Ezzor, in the east, and taken to the streets.

Two people were reportedly killed during a protest in Damascus' suburb of Qadam.

Activists said more than 500,000 people were protesting in Hama, 210 km (130 miles) north of Damascus.

Mrs Clinton said she was "hurt" by reports of violence in Aleppo

One Hama resident told the BBC Arabic: "Hundreds of thousands are chanting 'Leave, leave, the people want the fall of the regime.' All of Hama is celebrating. There are people chanting from their windows and from the fronts of their homes. All of Hama is on the streets today."

Protests were also staged in Syria's second largest second city of Aleppo, where police fired tear gas against demonstrators, reports say.

Syria's state TV aired images of pro-regime rallies in the northern city.

It showed people waving national flags and chanting "God, Syria, Bashar and that's it."

'Genuine transition'

The Syrian Revolution 2011 group had called on protesters to turn out after Friday prayers, with the message to Mr Assad: "We don't love you... Go away, you and your party."

Pro-government rallies were also held in Damascus and several other towns on Friday, with marchers saying they backed Mr Assad's pledges to reform.

The latest anti-Assad demonstrations follow the death of three more civilians overnight in the north-western region of Jabal al-Zawiyah, activists said - two in the town of al-Bara and one in the nearby village of Brim.

AFP also quoted activists as saying there had been explosions on Friday in the coastal city of Latakia.

Speaking earlier on Friday, Mrs Clinton said the Syrian authorities "know what they have to do".

Protests have spread to Aleppo, Syria's second city, activists say

"They must begin a genuine transition to democracy and allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient action toward achieving that goal," she said.

''It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time. There isn't any question about that.

"They are either going to allow a serious political process that will include peaceful protests to take place throughout Syria and engage in a productive dialogue with members of the opposition and civil society, or they're going to continue to see increasingly organised resistance."

Rights campaigners estimate that more than 1,350 civilians and 350 security personnel have been killed since mid-March as security forces try to stifle anti-government protests.

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Fresh revelation in SA arms deal

17 June 2011 Last updated at 17:26 GMT The deal involved Swedish Gripen fighter planes South Africa's opposition has called for new allegations of bribery surrounding the country's multi-billion dollar arms deal to be investigated.

The call comes after the Swedish company, Saab, said payments had been made through the British arms producer, BAE Systems.

BAE Systems said the matter had been fully reviewed and settled with the British authorities.

Critics say the South African arms deal will finally cost around $11bn.

On Thursday Saab issued a statement, saying it had completed an investigation, "after details emerged in the media about a contract with a South African consultant about which Saab had no prior knowledge".

Saab chief executive officer Hakan Buskhe said that about R24m ($3.5m) had been paid by BAE Systems to Saab's South African subsidiary Sanip Pty Ltd.

The payments were then transferred from Sanip Pty Ltd to a South African consultant, but the transactions were never entered into the accounts of Sanip and the payments took place without the knowledge of Saab.

Saab's President and Chief Executive, Hakan Buskhe said: "A person emplyed by BAE Systems has without Saab's knowledge signed a for us unknown contract, signed for us up until now unknown transactions as well as signing the audited and apparently inaccurate financial statement for 2003."

Saab has handed over all the materials from the investigation to the Swedish Anti-Corruption Unit and says it will work with any further inquiry.

"Saab has a zero-tolerance policy towards irregularities. Our internal investigation and openness in this matter demonstrates how seriously we regard this," said Mr Buskhe.

BAE Systems told the BBC: "This and other matters were fully reviewed by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and formed part of the overall resolution that the company reached with the SFO in February 2010. Any questions relating to Saab and its subsidiaries should be directed to Saab."

Reacting to the revelation, South Africa's opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, called for a fresh investigation.

The party spokesman, David Maynier, said he had written to the head of the Directorate of Priority Crimes, calling on him to act on the new information.

Andrew Feinstein, a former member of parliament for the African National Congress who led an earlier official probe into the arms deal, welcomed the new information.

"If an investigation is re-opened in Sweden it could prove an embarrassment to a number of countries," he said.

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Fresh attack on Libya's Misrata

10 June 2011 Last updated at 21:23 GMT The BBC's David Loyn in Misrata says morale is high among the rebels

A renewed barrage of shelling by Libyan troops around Misrata has left at least 22 people dead and at least 60 wounded, according to hospital doctors in the rebel-held city.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have been pounding Misrata throughout the day.

The city is the main rebel stronghold in western Libya, and has the country's largest port.

Witnesses report no activity in the area by Nato aircraft.

Tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets bombarded rebel positions at Dafniya, about 18 miles (30km) west of the city, said a doctor at Hikma Hospital in Misrata, speaking to Associated Press news agency.

Misrata has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the Libyan unrest. It endured 70 days of siege by pro-Gaddafi forces until Nato air raids broke the siege three weeks ago, enabling the rebels to break out.

Government forces have pushed back against those territorial gains.

They surround Misrata on all sides but the north, where the Mediterranean Sea provides a vital conduit for supplies from the rebel-held east.

Also on Friday, Col Gaddafi's forces shelled the town of Gadamis, 600km (370 miles) south-west of Tripoli, for the first time since the start of the uprising in February, a rebel spokesman told Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had offered to help send Col Gaddafi "wherever he wants to go", but had so far received no response from the Libyan authorities, AFP news agency reported.

Rape investigation

In Norway, military officials have announced their country would scale down its fighter jet contribution to the Nato force flying above Libya, from six planes to four. It will withdraw completely from the Nato-led operation by August.

The alliance decided last week to extend the Libyan mission for 90 days, into late September.

Speaking shortly before the Norwegian announcement, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates strongly criticised some Nato allies, in his last major speech before he retires later this month.

Mr Gates said operations in Libya and Afghanistan had exposed shortcomings in the military capability and political will of some members.

A senior United Nations official has said rape is still being used as a weapon of war in conflicts worldwide, including Libya.

Most perpetrators go unpunished as sexual violence thrives in a climate of impunity where victims are denied justice or reparations, said Margot Wallstrom, special representative of the UN secretary general on sexual violence in conflict.

"Sexual violence has become a tactic of choice for armed groups, being cheaper, more destructive and easier to get away with than other methods of warfare," she told a news conference.

Earlier this week, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said he was reviewing evidence that Colonel Gaddafi ordered his troops to rape hundreds of women as a weapon against rebel forces.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said rape was emerging as a new aspect of Col Gaddafi's repression.

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